Kaikoura - Whale Watching

Kaikoura Travel Blog

Today we were going on a whale watching trip to Kaikoura, we were on a pre-arranged tour so didn't have to do the driving ourselves for a change. We were picked up from the hotel and the lady driving us kept up a steady stream of conversation giving us information about things that we were passing and telling us what the weather was supposed to be like and how many whales / dolphins had been seen out the previous day.

Once we arrived at Kaikoura we were given a short safety briefing and then we were off. I don't have the best sea legs in the world so I had made sure that I took an anti sickness tablet that morning. There were a lot of people that hadn't though, and I didn't envy them at all. We rode out on the boat and kept stopping every so often so the 'whale finders' could listen under water to see if they could hear any whales anywhere.

Driving to Kaikoura

We eventually located one and sat there watching it until it went back under - basically you sit and watch a whale breath for ages just so you can try to get a photo of the tail when they dive! It was a really good trip though, we got to see 2 sperm whales and loads of dolphins - some people I know have been on the trip and seen nothing so I felt really lucky.

On the way back to Christchurch we stopped off to see a group of Fur Seals that were lying just off the side of the road - there were loads of them just lying around sleeping and they let you walk up really close to them... if you got too close they let you know!

The last stop on the way to Christchurch was a vineyard where we got to do some wine tasting (what a chore!) then it was time to go back to the hotel and pack everything up to go back to Auckland.